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So many chains criss-crossing about, you can barely see through the contraption. We know those horizontal connector chains are there to improve "catching" by reducing blow-throughs of hard *jams*. But at the same time this design is increasing the amount of mass that the static massed disc has to push against to successfully hole out. Which rewards even harder *jamming.* Eventually the PDGA will be forced to approve a much heavier but same diameter "jammer," so the force of the throw can knock all those chains aside. When will the escalation end?

It can end right now by evolving the game to chainless targets.

Played a course in Smyrna, TN with those baskets and loved them, no spit outs! I like them more than the Mach X for sureInnova Disc Catcher 28's are always great too! the heavier chains really help keep my putts in.Imagine Barry Bonds trying to sweetly sink a 101g polecat in a mach 3.... perfection? hardly.....

Imagine baseball, coach pitched, played on a softball diamond. <facetiously>The game would be so much more enjoyable. Every pitch... Gone. No silly strikeouts or walks. Gone or you're out! Baseball would be so much more entertaining. Every game a “Home Run Derby." Every kid would want to play baseball. The growth of baseball would be phenomenal. Let's do this MLB commissioner!</facetiously>

What disc golf is doing to the target could be loosely compared to if basketball made the rim larger and larger in diameter. Standard hoop size is 18." If it were the PDGA approving basketball hoop standard size, by now basketball hoops would be 3 feet in diameter. (we have to make the game enjoyable for everyone, after all) Wait! It still would be much harder to shoot a basket than putting is in disc golf. Lower that 3 foot diameter basket to a rim height of 6 feet. Now we're talking. Everyone! SLAM it home! Basketball would become even more popular 'cause everyone can do it. blech!

Ok, back to reality. The escalation of heavier and more chained up targets is rewarding those with a very specific style of finishing out; I call them Jammers. The object of the game used to be to get the disc into the "basket." When targets had a sparsely configured set of a dozen or so chains, finishing out actually required touch. If you didn’t use touch, you blew through or bounced off the chains or rattled out of the basket. The object of the game now days is to slam the disc into a wall of chains designed to prevent all those unwanted results above. Touch is no longer required, just the ability to jam the disc into the chains. And OMG I’m going to throw a tizzy if those chains don’t hang on to my disc like it’s their newborn baby!

Don’t fret, we all know Chainless baskets aren’t going to happen. I just threw that out there as a radical counter to the current direction of the sport. Anyone with any power to make changes to the game is not seriously considering moving the sport in the direction of making it more challenging. Disc golf target evolution was not guided by the PDGA to encourage players to get better, it has evolved to make it easier to play. It’s that simple.

If you feel putting is still too difficult, don't expect better “catching" devices. Instead, get good through practice, practice, practice. Not practice rounds but field practice, putting practice, hours and hours, thousands and thousands of throws every week. If you're not able or willing to do that, then accept that you're a casual golfer, not a competitive one. As such, parts of the game you're not naturally good at are going to be frustrating. For some their frustration may be driving, for others it may be putting. And for most casual golfers, both.

Anyway, basket design isn't going to radically change anytime soon. It will likely continue to evolve into bigger, heavier, more dense masses of chains to appease the whiners while at the same time making the game easier than ever, thus more appealing to the masses. Oh and it’ll be very appealing to the disc manufacturers (all the way to the bank) when that 250g “Wall (of chains) Jammer” is approved for play, by the PDGA (because there will be throngs of whiners that begin to complain that their 175g putters can’t push aside all those chains in the modern baskets and as such are getting too many “kickbacks/rejections”). The eager masses will rush to plunk down their $20 each for that radical, game changing, disc design.

If you made it this far, remember this: Every single putt you ever missed, or ever will miss, is your responsibility. None of those missed putts was, nor ever will be, the targets fault. If everyone had earnestly accepted that truth all through this sports history, we might still be “putting” instead “jamming” aside a massive wall of chains to finish out each hole.

The target zone size isn't and hasn't changed from the beginning. The increase in chains allows for more ACES and long up shots to stick. Putting soft on calm days my putts stay in, and on windy days jamming the putts in works too. I like the Discatcher 28 and the Mach X's. To each his own though, and lucky for all of us that know more chains is dilly dilly.

The increase in chains allows for more ACES and long up shots to stick.

Sure, the evolution of basket designs allows for those things. But there hasn't been a single chain link added to target design to increase the number of aces or long shots. Every increment of target evolution has been solely to reduce missed putts from poorly executed shots. The motivation being that the targets were not functioning to optimal "catching" capacity. Bah. The person missing the putt wasn't performing to optimal athletic ability.

All the time I was thinking about this....that we have done this before, and I have one in my backyard and I don't want to return to this type of disc golf......we have been there done that in my own mind.....